The price of $3396 is not for the faint-hearted, but it speaks to the unusually strong efforts that Nikon has made with the 19mm f/4 PC-Nikkor.

My first (and so far very limited) impression is that this is by far the best PC-E lens Nikon has ever delivered, as one should expect from the nearly double price.

For example, below is an actual pixels crop from the short end of the frame at full 12mm shift. The sharpness and the freedom from color fringing at this extreme are both unprecedented for a Nikon PC-E lens. It seems (to be proven out) that this performance is superior to any tilt/shift lens from Canon or Nikon or any other vendor. If that proposition pans out, then the Nikon 19mm f/4 PC-E may be one of those lenses that one buys a camera for as an accessory.